College Football 2010 - Regular Season

[JohnBM01]

Bunch of random comments...

* Not a good day if you're a fan of Alabama, Michigan, Kentucky, or Minnesota. It's GREAT if you're an Ohio State fan, though. I think Ohio State's going right up to #1 after Alabama lost by two touchdowns. Part of me says that will stay in the Top 10. Maybe drop down to #7 or something.

I first heard of Alabama's loss on the radio when I was listening to the various scores around the nation. I'm like... wow! Alabama fell hard in South Carolina. They fell like getting thrown off your bicycle head-on as you do a face plant in the ground.

* Michigan fell just as hard, though. Throwing three picks doesn't help, either. I still think Michigan is going to be just fine. Probably not a lock to win the Big Ten, but they will still be plenty capable and talented in the Big Ten this season.

* As for Minnesota, I'm wondering if the Golden Gophers are looking to have the head coach fired for the season they are having. And if so, who will (or could) be the new man in charge of the Minnesota football team? This is surely a disappointing season for a team that's usually one of the more competitive schools in the Big Ten.

* If Tennessee and Georgia are mediocre this season, then Tennessee must be severely overrated if Georgia hammers them on the scoreboard like they did earlier today.



Congratulations to all winners and tough luck for all the losers of today's and tonight's games!

 

[JohnBM01]

The fallout from Alabama's upset has shook up the college football ranks. Here's the AP Top 25 in FBS (source: Yahoo! Sports):

! = undefeated

01 - Ohio State!
02 - Oregon!
03 - Boise State!
04 - Texas Christian (TCU)!
05 - Nebraska!
06 - Oklahoma!
07 - Auburn!
08 - Alabama
09 - Louisiana State (LSU)!
10 - South Carolina
11 - Utah!
12 - Arkansas
13 - Michigan State!
14 - Stanford
15 - Iowa
16 - Florida State
17 - Arizona
18 - Wisconsin
19 - Nevada!
20 - Oklahoma State!
21 - Missouri!
22 - Florida
23 - Air Force
24 - Oregon State
25 - West Virginia

Also receiving votes: Michigan (137), Miami (63), North Carolina State (31), Virginia Tech (17), Texas (5), Northwestern (5), and Kansas State (1)


I don't think the BCS standings are out yet. Still, those are the 25 best teams in the nation according to the AP polls. Some of these teams already have the six or so wins to make them Bowl eligible. You REALLY want to reach that BCS Bowl eligible status. Any teams you're impressed with out of these 25? What about teams unimpressed with?

 

[JohnBM01]

Ready for some Primetime Thursday college football? We got South Florida at #25 West Virginia tonight. We'll see what the Big East and these two teams are made of at the conclusion of this game.

Enjoy this weekend's games!

 

[JohnBM01]

West Virginia won in a blowout last year, but nowhere near the ownage Kansas State put on Kansas in Lawrence. How does a 59-7 beatdown of Kansas by K-State sound?

Tonight is Cincy and Louisville. Not sure if it's at Cincinnati or Louisville, but the Keg of Nails is on the line in this rivalry match.



Here are a few more games this Saturday:
* #1 Ohio State at #?? Wisconsin (ESPN College Gameday)
* Texas at #5 Nebraska
* #?? Illinois at Michigan State
* Boston College at #1? Florida State
* Maryland at Clemson
* #21 Missouri at Texas A&M
* Miami at Duke
* Akron at Ohio
* Houston at Rice
* Buffalo at Northern Illinois
* #15 Iowa at Michigan
* California at USCal
* #12 Arkansas at #7 Auburn
* #18 South Carolina at Kentucky
* Mississippi at #8 Alabama
* #19 Nevada at Hawaii (start time: 11:30 PM EDT)



Enjoy this weekend's games!

 

[GT_Prologue5]

I don't think the BCS standings are out yet. Still, those are the 25 best teams in the nation according to the AP polls. Some of these teams already have the six or so wins to make them Bowl eligible. You REALLY want to reach that BCS Bowl eligible status. Any teams you're impressed with out of these 25? What about teams unimpressed with?

BCS has Boise State at #1.

 

[FishforRent]

My longhorns take out Nebraska (again), Ohio St. is getting their lunch money stolen right now.......Boise and TCU in the Nat Champ game????

Say it ain't so....................

 

[Zad]

BCS poll is out now.....

10.Ohio State
9.Utah
8.Alabama
7.Michigan State
6.LSU
5.TCU
4.Auburn
3.Boise State
2.Oregon
1.Oklahoma:tup:

 

[FoolKiller]

Woooo! UK upset South Carolina!

And then Randall Cobb used Twitter to let UK fans know what he thinks of their lack of enthusiasm.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/10/17/randall-cobb-twitter-blasts-kentucky-fans/

 

[Jump_Ace]

I'm an Oregon State fan and my boss is a U of O fan (of course) so this week will be interesting, especially since the Beavers aren't ranked anymore

Jerome

 

[JohnBM01]

I knew you'd be jacked about your Wildcats taking down South Carolina, FoolKiller. Some turnaround for the Gamecocks- from top of the world to back down to earth in only one week. My "Biggest Win of the Week" (if I was still covering college football) would have been Texas taking down #5 Nebraska on the road. I admit- I was pretty unsure that Texas would pull off a win like that.

The disappointment, meanwhile, continues for Minnesota. I actually saw most of the first half of that game. A lot of inconsistent play and lots of errors could have made Purdue run away with the win. They did bounce back, but still lost. Also lost is the Golden Gophers' coach on this 1-6 season for them.

And lastly here, my Houston Cougars couldn't stop Rice. The Owls will get the Bayou Bucket in our crosstown rivalry. Houston is not going to have any kind of breakout season now, but at least we're MUCH better than the UH team that finished 0-12 back in 2003 or so. It's sad for me since I'm a Houston Cougar fan.


[UPDATE] I saw the end of today's "College Football Live" on ESPN. Despite the fact that Kentucky upset South Carolina at Commonwealth Stadium, one player was sarcastic on Twitter showcasing the lack of support from certain UK fans. He was sarcastic in talking about how certain fans haven't had any faith in Kentucky Wildcats' football. I heard of how Kentucky fans were booing UK after just the first quarter. The final opinion posted was that bandwagon fans shouldn't be going to games if they aren't so supportive of the teams they love.

I would be surprised if GTPlanet's Mr. Kentucky Wildcat, FoolKiller doesn't chime in on this deal. What do you make of bandwagon fans in college football and how this Wildcat football player expressed his feelings about a lack of fan support and faith in the team?

 

[Zad]

I'm an Oregon State fan and my boss is a U of O fan (of course) so this week will be interesting, especially since the Beavers aren't ranked anymore

Jerome

As a OU fan myself I'll be rooting for Oregon State too.... The top of the AP/coach's poll is a dangerous place this year.


Course texas had to ruin my dreams of a OU/Neb Big XII championship with both teams being undefeated. Would of been a nice ending for the Big XII.

 

[CAMikaze]

Woooo! UK upset South Carolina!

And then Randall Cobb used Twitter to let UK fans know what he thinks of their lack of enthusiasm.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/10/17/randall-cobb-twitter-blasts-kentucky-fans/

I knew you'd be jacked about your Wildcats taking down South Carolina, FoolKiller.

Methinks Randall should have quoted Darth Vader in this instance.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Thought I'd get off my virtual duff and post in this thread. Penn State is at Minnesota this week with kickoff at High Noon, EDT. I'm hoping the Nittany Lions players step up after letting their alumni down at the Homecoming Game against Illnois two weeks ago.

 

[FishforRent]

I theriousthly don't know how thombodthy sthought Lou Holtz sthould give a monologuthe on TVth!

Not only do they need to put a spit screen in front of the camera, but the viewer needs to have close caption on to understand him.

Anyhay, Oregon vs UCLA......oops Oregon up by 7. Long night for the Bruins, or as Lou says Bruinsth.....

edit: geez, Oregon is scoring on average 1 point per minute; Oh and Lou is still killing me.

*mute, on*

 

[JohnBM01]

Two big matches tonight (rankings taken from Yahoo! Sports): #3 Oklahoma at #18 Missouri. Also, #6 LSU at #5 Auburn. The LSU/Auburn match is my "Game of the Week." It's the battle of the remaining unbeatens in the SEC.

Enjoy today's and tonight's games!

 

[Joey D]

I'm curious how Michigan State is still undefeated and I'm really curious when they got good.

 

[FishforRent]

.....so is Iowa St. some kind of interwebz school???









man my longhorns are hurting. Need a QB methinks.👎

 

[JohnBM01]

TIMBERRRRRRRR... ANOTHER #1 goes down! Maybe Lee Corso's regretting his pick of Oklahoma after he put on the Boomer Sooner head. Missouri just played lights out. Elsewhere, LSU finally went down.

Congratulations to all of today's winners!

 

[FishforRent]

Looks like Auburn and Alabama will move up; too bad Boise isn't playing anyone. TCU may keep their spot (AF isn't a bag of hammers). Wisconsin may even jump a bit. Crazy year.

 

[JohnBM01]

Yeah. I remember when all the #2 teams fell a few years ago. This is what makes college football insane, especially when highly-ranked teams fall like flies around a bug light.

It's pretty likely that Oregon will be #1. All the recent #1 teams fell on the road. Oregon will play USCal. USCal has nothing to lose. And if you ask me, they have a hell of a lot of incentive to take down Oregon. This is USCal's BCS Bowl game basically.

 

[FishforRent]

BCS show tonight. We'll see if Auburn gets the top spot or if Oregon can take it.

USC is loaded with talent. Their hit and miss on game day, but they can beat anyone when their clicking. And your right, USC has nothing but spoiler on their mind......

 

[kjb]

Well Auburn has the #1 spot for now. The question is do they want it. The last few weeks every ranked #1 has lost. We'll see if that trend continues.

 

[Danoff]

.....so is Iowa St. some kind of interwebz school???

man my longhorns are hurting. Need a QB methinks.👎

They're definitely hurting - but it's a motivational and coaching problem more than anything else. I don't fault Brown (unlike many others), because Brown is actually very good at doing what head coaches are supposed to do. I do fault Greg Davis and Mac McWhorter (and maybe Applewhite, who is misplaced as the RB coach). If this goes unchecked long enough, it will become Brown's problem. I'd like to see Greg Davis and McWhorter canned at the end of the year. I wouldn't mind seeing Applewhite moved off of RB coach as well but kept within the organization.

I think more than anything we've gotten lulled into complacency and have overlooked some festering problems over the last few years that have finally come to bloom.

 

[FishforRent]

I'm with you regarding Applewhite. I can't explain that one. Sometimes I think it had something to do with boosters or intra-university politics, but I wouldn't think Mack would allow it. Maybe Mack's truely on his way out. Hard to determine where the Longhorns vision went. They've gotten smaller at the skill positions and slower at the big-boy positions.

I'm not ready to disgard Davis yet. I think he knows Gilbert isn't that talented, so his play calling is really diluted. I've read that Gilberts father is part of the problem. He's dead set to have his son be the pro-style QB (even though the Longhorns are built to option-play) and doesn't want him to run. Problem is that Gilbert can't make decisions fast enough to play the position that way.

Bright side of the team is that defense. Many pro prospects on that side of the ball.

(Trivia question: Whose the only NFL player to play in 5 consecutive Super Bowls? Gale Gilbert - Garretts father.....he lost all, 4 with the Bills, 1 with the Chargers)

 

[Danoff]

I'm not ready to disgard Davis yet. I think he knows Gilbert isn't that talented, so his play calling is really diluted.

I haven't seen any lack of talent. I've seen a few poor decisions - which is normal for a new QB. What he needs is a experience, and he won't get that with the Davis playcalling. Greg Davis bothered me even when Vince Young was on board. Under Colt McCoy he was even worse. Now it's unbearable. We've won in spite of him in the past and can't afford that luxury at this point.

 

[JohnBM01]

Tonight, it's Louisiana Tech at #2 Boise State. The Thursday night game will be #16 Florida State at North Carolina State. The Friday night match is West Virginia at Connecticut.

I'm also working on a postseason thread since there are now teams (like Baylor) that are Bowl Eligible. Enjoy this week's games!

 

[FishforRent]

I haven't seen any lack of talent. I've seen a few poor decisions - which is normal for a new QB.

Fair point. I guess that I see Gilbert with only 2 consistent throws in his arsenal; a dump off pass to a back or TE, or a 10 yard hot route, thrown as hard as he can. Don't get me wrong, he's got the arm to complete the 15-20 yd come-back route from the far hashmark (which is a difficult throw on its own), but his accuracy is suspect.

The throws he should be able to make, even at this level are more sophisicated. Such as the 15-20 yd crossing route over the LB into the crease in the zone, or a 15 yd out-route to a receiver in the flat. These throws require strong control and spin to make, but a Div I college quarterback should be able to make these (some of the time). He doesn't even try most times. From what I've seen if he can't throw it on a roop to a receiver, he dumps it off (or gets sacked). I can't remember seeing as many tipped balls at the line of scrimmage in quite a few years from a UT QB (and he's tall so he should be able to get it over and down to his receivers).

Vince didn't really have those type of throws in his years either (and still doesn't) but Colt did. But what really separated Colt and Vince from Garrett, is that if they didn't feel secure in the play call, they ran for 5 yds+, which Garrett hasn't done the year except at Neb.

To your point on Davis, I'll pay more attention to it this weekend since most of my judgement has been tainted by my view of Gilbert. 👍

edit: Another bit of info.....I was talking to a friend of mine who is big into high school football (he's a journalist who's connected to TxA&M football + his son plays high school football, 4A class) and he was telling me that this year UT is trying to change from an option / spred offense to a power running game. Yeah it sounds funny since they don't have the horses to succeed in that, but the reason is due to a 5star recruit coming out of Steele High School in Cibilo, Tx. Malcohm Brown is a 6'2 230lb stud, No.1 running back recruit everyone seems to be after. Mack Brown came to Cibilo and promised to morph into a power running game for this guy. He was planning on going to USC but since they are on sanctions, he's verbally commited to UT. Interesting stuff. Malcohm has been training in an Olympic qualified center in San Antonio for the last 2 years and is supposedly the real-deal and as a freshman will be the starting running back. Maybe next year our O-line will up to the task, and perhaps Garrett will have some help. (For what its worth......rumors, but I've looking at the High School stats in the local papers and....yeah, he's something else. Earlier this year Malcohm had a game where he had 250+ yds and 4 TDs in the first half. Hmmmmmm.......

 

[Danoff]

Gilbert isn't throwing the 15-20 yard crossing route over the LB because it isn't being run. Greg Davis has been directing Gilbert to extremely safe throws at the sidelines - because for some reason they're trying very hard to keep his decision making requirements to a minimum. One problem with that is that we've refused to even run routes across the middle, even as a decoy. This enables the defense to focus on a smaller portion of the field.

I should caveat that I didn't get to see the Iowa game, so I don't know if we did something different there.

I'm aware of Malcolm Brown's signing, and I've seen some clips of his HS running. He's impressive for sure, but he's not the best I've seen at the HS level. Comparing his HS footage against a HS Ricky Williams, for example, he comes up a bit short. That's not to say he won't be a great back, I'm sure he will be. But I have doubts about whether we'll be able to build the team around him.

Another point about Colt being able to throw to routes that Gilbert doesn't is that Colt had Shipley to throw to. When Gilbert had Ship in the championship game, his best completions were to Shipley. Take away Shipley and I think Colt struggles a LOT more.

And now this morning, I see this interview with former UT standout Johnny Walker (read the whole thing):

What is your gut reaction from the loss to Iowa State?
Johnny Walker: First thing's first - it is completely unacceptable to lose to Iowa State. I think Greg Davis needs to resign as the offensive coordinator. I'm not for firing him, and I think he can stay on as the quarterback's coach, but I think its time to hand over the reins to Major Applewhite and let him call plays. I'm not for bashing on coaches, but I saw a big problem yesterday. When you're playing against a team in Iowa State that had lost by six touchdowns each of the past two weeks, surely there's something Utah and Oklahoma did to exploit something in their defense. You would think you'd have a game plan that featured some of what they did or at least something you do similarly that you feel will work just as well. They had no game plan. That part has nothing to do with players or anything like that - it is 100 percent coaching and that's completely unacceptable.

 

[FishforRent]

Brown hasn't signed yet, not until Feb, and quite frankly not many were as good as R. Williams in HS but I share your perspective that the team has to be rebuilt for that kind of scheme. Mack is also recruiting a QB out of Madison. Still looking into that info. I'll be watching the play-calling more during this weekends Baylor game. Baylor being ranked will add to the effort out of them, not to mention that this is probably the best Baylor team that Tx has faced in years.

Shipley became a star when Cosby left, prior to that Quan was always making a play while Shipley was returning kicks (after he came back from injury, twice) and playing the number 2. Don't get me wrong Shipley was involved, but it was Colt who was getting these guys the ball. I don't see Gilbert getting the ball out of his hand. He doesn't have that clock in his head. Before Colt developed that, he ran the ball; pulled it down and made a play, kept the drive alive. Gilbert is not doing those things while he learns how to be a quarterback. Drives are only 3 plays. That's whats missing, I think. Granted it appears Davis is being called out by alot of people (just browsing the webz alittle) so perhaps Gilbert needs better managment from the coaches, which is apparently (rumored)why Applewhite is there. Davis is not expected to be there after this season.

 

[Danoff]

Brown hasn't signed yet, not until Feb

Right, he committed... or whatever. None of it seems to mean anything anyway.

 

[FishforRent]

......None of it seems to mean anything anyway.

No doubt. 3 consecutive losses is Austin. Boooooo.